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The tree that ate a bicycle on Washington's Vashon Island has been a popular destination for curiosity seekers for years, particularly for those who have read Berkeley Breathed's 1994 book, Red Ranger Came Calling, which was inspired by this arboreal oddity. Many photographs of the bicycle tree can be found on the Internet on sites such as RoadsideAmerica, and a trek to the site is captured in the following video: Pictures of the bicycle are commonly associated with text claiming it was left chained to a tree by a boy who went off to war in 1914 However, the bicycle is not nearly that old, nor was it left behind by a young man setting off to take part in World War I. According to the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber, the bicycle was left behind in the mid-1950s by a local resident who simply abandoned it: Although Don Puz identified the bicycle in the picture as his and verified that he had abandoned it in the area shown many years earlier, he said nothing about having left it chained to a tree. And given the location of the bike within the tree and the manner in which trees actually grow, it's quite unlikely the bicycle ended up in its current position through the tree's naturally enveloping it and growing around it, as many viewers assume — almost certainly one or more persons had a hand in moving the bike after Don abandoned it back in 1954. As well, the bicycle exhibits a somewhat varied appearance in photographs taken at different times because over the years parts of it (e.g., handlebars, tires) have been stolen or worn away and replaced with similar parts, creating a Ship of Theseus debate over whether the current bike is truly an original at this point.
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